Although he was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1977, Oki Sato spent most of his life in Tokyo. He studied architecture at the renowned Waseda University, but discovered his true calling in his final years of University when he went on a trip with some friends to the Milan Mobil’ showroom. Back in Tokyo, in 2002 he laid the cornerstones of the design studio that would eventually be known as “Nendo”, meaning “molding clay” in Japanese, a symbol for the main principle of all of his creations: to transform anything that is mundane into something exceptional. In the beginning, Oki Sato and his team (Akihiro Ito, Takahiro Matsumura, Takajuki Jshikawa, Ternaki Okdada and Joshitika Ito) took part in a great number of competitions, winning the 2002 “Lipton Cup design Contest” and the coveted “Tokyo Designers Block Frame Award”. As of that moment the fame of the Nendo Studio grew almost exponentially, as confirmed by the number of works presented every year at Milan, not to mention the opening of a second branch, in 2005, in the same cosmopolitan Italian city. Nowadays Oki Sato is one of the most appreciated and innovative designers, working on projects with famous producers and exhibiting designs in renowned museums such as “The Museum of Modern Art” in New York, and the “Musee des Arts Decoratifs” in Paris or “The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts”. Extremely simple, at a first glance, Nendo’s designs prove themselves to be intelligent and innovative from a conceptual standpoint, as well as in terms of technique (experimenting with different materials and structures). A general trait would be the lack of color associated to the powerfully outlined shapes. Oki Sato is much rather interested in lighting, with the help of which he manages to imprint a strong personality to every object or space that he designs. What inspires him? Most often, the loud streets of Tokyo, the city that fascinates him and whose organic and surprising development served as a model for his own company.

Efficiency is the operative term or our era, born of the almightiness of the beneficiary and the architecture’s egotistical will to subject every last square inch to its creative endeavour, in a concrete and visible manner. This 20009 house built in the Valencian region of Godella is surprising precisely in that it takes the opposite stance: the foreground introduces an ample, perfectly lit and unbuilt space. Of the 1150sqm of the lot, almost a quarter is reserved for the two-sided open “atrium” to which the entire project is dedicated – including by name. The layout of living spaces in an orthogonal fan open unto the courtyard takes into account the four cardinal points: the two perpendicular wings of this house’s makeup are directed towards the South and the South-West, which ensures light (and heating) appropriate to each type of chamber. The access point on the Southern side is almost completely sheltered and opens directly unto the pivotal area of the inhabitance mechanism – the staircase leading down towards the basement, the distribution hallways and the nearby kitchen. The functional segregation become apparent from this point of view: on the Western side – the night area, with two guest bedrooms and a master bedroom, while the Southern area is reserved for the dinning room and the salon-like living room, complete with a closed-off terrace. The whole procession of spaces is in permanent dialogue with the exterior, communicated through sliding doors opening up unto either the central pool area or the far sides of the property.

Part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Complex The Izvorani hotel is a happy case, continuing the series of architectural objects inspired by movement (let us not forget that we are talking about a sports complex). While the Olympic Swimming Pool project recalled the shape of a surf board, as well as the movement of the waves, the new building was inspired by the joy of people waving flags and flooding the sky with coloured ribbons. It's not only the building's plan that recalls a flag in the wind, but also the treatment of the facades and the curved detail of the last white strip above the restaurant. The simple, mainly white volume stands out against the background of Snagov forest, also benefiting from the Southern orientation of the main facade, wanted and sought-after by the architects because it granted them flexibility in their play on light. The four levels above the ground are far from constituting a straight, rigid and indifferent block: here, the architect proposes an inflexion, focusing on the central point of the composition - the stadium and the athletic track. The access area and the 96 rooms are grouped behind the strips of plaster and glass, offering a direct view on the sporting centre.

The owners wished for a modern house, with minimalistic lines and generous openings towards the outside, that would at, the same time, respect the general formal restrictions of the neighbourhood where the site is located (the framed roof, the retreat from the street front etc.) Another request made clear to the architect, which ended up playing a great role in the overall shaping of the volume, concerned the existence of a relatively stand-alone daytime space, able to host parties, leisure activities etc. In order to make the most of the site's structure and, at the same time, to generate a green surface of considerable size, the architect conceived the house as a simple and concise juxtaposition of geometrical volumes, following an horizontal line, with repeating proportions, in order to convey a feeling of coherence and unity. In fact, there are two volumes, connected through a glazed "gangway": the main one - the house per se - containing the living room, dining room, kitchen and a series of supplementary spaces, and the secondary one, for entertainment, containing a vast, fully-equipped living room, as well as other leisure spaces (sauna, spa, pool, showers). All of these spaces communicate with the exterior, the solid/hollow ration being about 50-50.

In the heart of Transylvania, in an area renowned for its fortified churches, mythical landscapes and charming traditions, at a short distance walk from Biertan, lies the little village of Copșa Mare. The silhouette of its impressive Evangelist church, built six centuries ago, is still visible from afar, while the traditional houses of the German settlers, perfectly aligned along the road, with their high portals protecting the courtyards from intrusive looks, are a joy to behold. Facing the same situation as most of the other rural areas in Romania, constantly under a threat of massive destruction, brought by an inadequately carried-out modernization process, the village was going through a change that would permanently damage its uniqueness. Fortunately, following their visit to Transylvania, Italian businesspeople Giovanna and Paolo Bassetti decided to start a project of sustainable development in Copsa Mare, based on the need to recover the built patrimony and to encourage tourism in the area, thus promoting its unique qualities. The first building to benefit from an ample restoration process was the so-called "Green House", all of the interventions being done only after consulting the village elders, who were all too aware of the details of their traditional architecture.